My expressions in these photographs in no way convey the amount of excitement I had when I first saw Helen's Tower. The other week was my one year anniversary with Thomas and I was mostly exited to be in Northern Ireland to spend time with him and didn't anticipate more than a meal out to commemorate the occasion. He surprised me by announcing we were going away for a couple of day and didn't reveal the destination, even as we drove off towards the seaside I was in the dark. It wasn't until we found our way on a small backroad driving deeper and deeper into some murky woods and finally rounded a corner to see this tower looming above us that our destination--Helen's Tower--was revealed to me. As an American all too easily impressed with the sight of castle ruins the idea of staying in an actual tower for a few nights was quite overwhelmingly (to use my most American term) awesome. The tower was built in the 1800s and the Irish Landmark trust has renovated it (along with other interesting properties) to make the tower suitable for brief visits. I have more pictures to share inside some of the rooms in the tower, but today the focus is on the impressive exterior, the spiral staircase that rose through the center, and our little rooftop area which provided beautiful views on less foggy days. It felt quite surreal to unlock the front door and make ourselves at home--even on our second night sitting by the fire with a game of Scrabble in the evening I found my eyes wandering around the room and wondering how I managed to get there. Definitely an outstanding anniversary surprise that I won't soon get over.